New law: Uninsured taxxed vehicles MUST be insured

[G]

Very, very boo .

From here: https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_174086


Uninsured drivers left with nowhere to hide

* Published: Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Tough new powers to tackle the selfish minority of uninsured drivers who cost law-abiding motorists £400m each year were set out by Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick today.

Uninsured motorists

* latest estimates are that around 6.5% (around 2 million) of GB motorists drive uninsured
* the penalty for driving without insurance is a maximum fine of £5,000 and 6-8 penalty points
* around 300,000 offenders are convicted for uninsured driving every year.

The new measures will make it an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle - rather than just to drive when uninsured - making it easier to catch uninsured drivers and keep them off the roads.

Under the new system:

* the DVLA will work in partnership with the insurance industry to identify uninsured vehicles
* motorists will receive a letter telling them that their vehicle appears to be uninsured and warning them that they will be fined unless they insure it within a set period
* if the keeper fails to insure the vehicle they will be given a £100 fine
* if the vehicle remains uninsured - regardless of whether the fine is paid - it could then be seized and destroyed.

Uninsured driving adds around £30 a year to every motorist's insurance premium - amounting to more than £400m a year in additional premiums. It is also estimated that uninsured and untraced drivers kill 160 people and injure 23,000 every year.

The government has already given the police powers to seize and destroy vehicles being driven uninsured, along with improved access to the Motor Insurance Database to enhance their capability to detect uninsured driving by using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment. Police removed around 150,000 vehicles in 2007 - more than 400 a day.

Last year a new offence of causing death by driving while unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured was introduced.

Jim Fitzpatrick said: ""The selfish minority of drivers who refuse to insure their cars push up premiums for other motorists and kill or injure thousands of people each year."

""Increased police powers already mean more than 400 uninsured vehicles are seized every day but these tough new measures will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide.""
Further information

The public consultation published today sets out details of how it is proposed that the offence would be enforced. The consultation runs until 16 April 2009 and copies are available on the DfT website.



So, people with more of an idea exactly how the UK governmental system works; what can we do about it?

[Itchy]

This has been discussed at length on the I spy thread.

Short of an armed insurrection nothing you can do about it, other than leave for other shores.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[G]

Ah, my bad, I make an effort to avoid that section; I can't handle some of the blinded tin-foil hat style people .

[jack_zxr400]

i got hit by an uninsured driver a year back and the claim still hasnt been sorted

but ive got mixed feelings about this
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Previous Bike: ZXR 400
Current Bike: R6
Test Date: 8/8/2008-PASSED

[ajb]

It's out for consultation.

Forward you thoughts (in a concise and intellectual manner of course).

Also, for any uninsured drivers out there, the key to beating this silly law is just don't own your own vehicle, drive someone elses !!!
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CBR125R '05 > CB500 '00 > CBR600F '99

[Poseidon]

I could see this as being very beneficial!!! my wifes car is proper dead (old ford fester... it happens! ). These new rules state that if we leave it un-insured and don't pay the fine, they'll seize and destroy the vehicle!!! I was quoted £20 for that kinda service!
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1977 Honda CG125
2002 Ducati Monster S4 (currently restoring)

[mad4it028]

so what happen to people like me with a few cars and a few bikes i have to insure all of them even tho some wont be used for the year and kept in storage?insured storage at that
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always looking to buy bikes crashed ,unfinished projects,none runners pm me
currently riding kawasaki z1000 only bike ive ever loved

[Poseidon]

On a more serious note though... If you have a car in need of repair, it's still taxed but insurance has run out, you get fines and threats of removal of your property, yet if you burgle houses, mug old women, beat the living daylights out of people etc you get a friendly (free) warning and sent on your way (ASBO, cautions etc)

Yet again the motorist is an easy/affluent target
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1977 Honda CG125
2002 Ducati Monster S4 (currently restoring)

[G]

You're ok if they're SORN'd... however my bikes are often taxed, but not insured.
You can get tax returned (and do get a refund)... but that's on a per month basis that will end up taking a lot of time and I suspect even more money to get right.

[stinkwheel]

They can't crush it if they don't know where it is.

I have refused to participate in the SORN system on the basis that it is a stupid waste of my time and effort which achieves nothing. A decision which to-date has resulted in exactly no consequences whatsoever.

I suspect this insurance thing will function in the same way.

The general incompetance and laziness exhibited by the Swansea employment creation scheme known as the DVLA works both ways. It took them 12 years and six attempts to spell my name correctly on my driving licence. I expect them to exhibit the same level of diligence regarding the insurance thing.

Anyway, it'll flop. The system is at the mercy of third parties keeping a database up to date, which they wont. It is as weak as the laziest data inputter at the most incompetant insurance brokers. First time they set it off to do a run, it'll throw an eppy and use up six months paper supply spitting out largely spurious penalty charge notices. A riot will then ensue, politicians will U-turn and it will be given up as a bad idea.

I don't see why they can't realise that the first people to fill in a SORN declaration are those people who intend to drive without tax and insurance. You tell a computer system your car is off the road, it believes you. Then you are running the risk that a copper spots you are driving while on SORN, which is as much risk as you were taking by driving uninsured anyway.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Tango675]

One word: SORN?

Will I need to insure a bike thats in bits in the shed?

Not sure that this system will work
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Somebody give that windup merchant a torque wrench..

[stinkwheel]

Link to the consultation:
https://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/motor/

If you don't complete it, you don't get to complain.

For the record, I responded to the SORN consultation too stating how stupid an idea I thought it was. I therefore reserve the right to complain about it.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Newbiker0507]

What about bikes in sheds/storage?

[Kickstart]

[cicatrez]

so for example. If you live somewhere where you can't get off road parking.. you will get fined even tho your car has road tax?
It seems somewhat unfair.Paying insurance for a car that you are not driving. Your not an uninsured driver if you aint driving the damn car.
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'02 Honda City Fly

[Bendy]

[.Chris.]

There's an almost hilarious lack of logic with this one - people who willingly drive around uninsured probably aren't going to be all that bothered if said vehicle is also (illegitimately) on SORN. The only people who will be fined under this are those who unwittingly don't comply with all the DVLA's pointless bureaucracy.

Also this relies on the MID (which is where I presume the insurance data will come from) being accurate and up to date, which it isn't. Using askmid.com I know my bike isn't on the database, but is most definitely insured.

On the subject of SORN, it seems that the DVLA are too incompetent to even send me a fine! My Land Rover has had no tax or SORN since October and I haven't heard anything.
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Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[stinkwheel]

My reply to the consultation:

[RS2MATRIX]

wow for a minute i really thought your surname was stinkwheel
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Reiju RS2 Matrix
Kawasaki ZXR400

[Skudd]

Not sure whether to pay the £82 fully comp insurance or be a rebel and ride around uninsured.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Duckyboos]

I wonder how much money from taxed but off-the-road vehicles is currently sitting in Government coffers...

...and if people started submitting SORN declarations left right 'n' centre, how much of this money would have to be refunded?

[stinkwheel]

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

[inchi55]

Are we all forgetting something here. The government keep telling us they know every untaxed and uninsured car or bike on the road (unsorn) around 3 million so if there that sure where they are why have they not been round and crushed them and got them off the road, why leave it to the cops to catch one here and there. They waste more money on advertising to tell us these facts instead of fixing the crap roads like they should be doing with the road tax money.
The point being they rely on us telling them because they carn`t keep up with the system
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past bikes-gt185, gsx250, gsx600f, gsx750f and now rf900/
yea suzuki man all the way.

[stinkwheel]